The Watsonville Sloughs

California has lost over 90 percent of its wetlands to development, and the Watsonville Sloughs — one of the largest remaining freshwater marshlands in the state’s coastal zone — provide a crucial resting place for many species of migrating birds. Among the thousands of birds and other abundant wildlife frequenting the sloughs are a variety of rare, threatened and endangered species, including 27 of the 73 declining birds listed in California as “species of special concern.”

The Watsonville sloughs cover about 800 acres adjacent to the city of Watsonville. The slough system has six interlinked, freshwater sloughs lying at the southern end of Santa Cruz County, in central-coast California; they are fed by the waters of the Pajaro Valley watershed.